Hawk Moth

The moth members of this Order of insects include a large number of diverse families. Moth groups include micro moths, leaf miners, clothes moths, plume moths, ermine moths, burnets, geometrids, silk moths, sphinx moths, tiger moths, wasp moths, noctuids, underwings and many others.

Setting up a light trap on a hillside in Sulawesi attracted a tremendous variety of sphinx moths with cryptic wing coloration and patternation mimicking leaf venation. The edges are specifically designed to merge with their background and make the shape of the wing hard to discern. Mercury vapor light emit in the ultra violet (UV) spectrum and is most attractive to night flying insects. Navajo Indian mythology believe that vomit from sphinx moth caterpillars serves as an antidote to tobacco poisoning. In the myth, the Hero twins of Monsterway are protected from the poisonous tobacco of their father the sun.